"(SACRAMENTO) What do you want to be when you grow up?

For many students of color, the answer may not be a future in health care. They may not realize how the profession could be for them or understand the path to achieving that goal.

But a two-week summer experience at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis seeks to change that.

“I have worked with enough pre-nursing students who didn't really know some of the important things that they needed to know about their freshman and sophomore years in college, to the extent that they were no longer able to get into a nursing school,” said Piri Ackerman-Barger, the School of Nursing’s associate dean for Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. “We thought that by starting high school students off with some of the core pieces of information they needed to know, so that they were successful as soon as they walked in the door to community college or to a university, that would be really helpful.”

Driven by the desire to show students a possible future and the need to diversify the future health care workforce, Ackerman-Barger launched the Summer Health Institute for Nursing Exploration and Success (SHINES) program. This week, 38 students from eight high schools that serve underrepresented students in Sacramento began the inaugural program. They attend Cristo Rey, Arthur A. Benjamin Health Professions, Sacramento Charter, Florin, Mira Loma Del Campo, Laguna Creek and River City high schools."

Read the full story at UC Davis Health